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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22603177">whatever it takes.</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifetimeoflaughter/pseuds/lifetimeoflaughter'>lifetimeoflaughter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Number Five | The Boy Has Issues, Number Five | The Boy Needs A Hug, Number Five | The Boy-centric</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:40:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>939</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22603177</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lifetimeoflaughter/pseuds/lifetimeoflaughter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>109</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>whatever it takes.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Things were more or less how he had left them, in a way.</p><p>Luther was still Luther, large, looming, and literally incapable of being a good leader.</p><p>Diego was still Diego, the same scowl and attachment to Mom and slight stutter.</p><p>Allison? Allison remained Allison, as pretty as she had been all their lives and just as confident, even if her facade had been crumbling recently.</p><p>Klaus, admittedly, was more of a mess than he had been as a thirteen-year-old. Being an adult did have its perks, in Klaus’s case, being a gateway to heavier drugs. </p><p>Ben…Ben was dead. Five had had years to process this, but it still didn’t seem quite right that his softest brother had to die first.</p><p>And Vanya. Oh, Vanya, poor, poor Vanya. even after all these years, she was still her meek, emotionless self, hated by everyone except him.</p><p>And he loved them all so. So very much. Enough that he bailed on the Commission under the threat of termination to save them and enough that watching them fall apart like this tore him to shreds on the inside. </p><p>Five didn’t particularly understand it, to be honest. He’d always been a child of math and logic rather than one of emotion. When he was still with his siblings as a child, he didn’t appreciate them enough. Somehow, somewhere, the thirteen-year-old kid in his head was still screaming to forget this mess, to find Vanya, screaming that he was an idiot for leaving in the first place. The 58-year-old voice kept saying to stay calm and do the calculations, to think rationally and detachedly, and yet, he was more inclined to listen to the child that yells YOU MISSED THEM…YOU LOVED THEM! He doesn’t know what to do with that.</p><p>He’s tempted to give each of them a long hug, starting with Vanya and Mom. The child shrieks and sobs to just collapse in his android mother’s arms. The old man stays silent. and Five scribbles furiously on the wall, working more and more equations into his makeshift workspace, desperately looking for an answer. </p><p>He wasn’t prepared for their reactions when he came back. The hurt, the grief, the questioning looks that they gave him - Five had never been good with emotions. With only Dolores around for a good half-decade, he’d become even more brusque than he was, sharper and blunter. He could only be mean, and in return, they were on the defensive. He knew everything about them - Vanya’s book <em>had</em> been a tell-all, but they knew nothing except that he had vanished and left them behind and then Ben had died and now Dad had died and the world is going to end they’re so <em>blissfully unaware, so calmly sure that they’ll survive the next days, don’t they know, that they’ll die?? they’ll die, and they’ll leave him behind again, alone and having to bury the only family he’s ever known and it’ll be his fault!</em></p><p>So maybe that’s why he goes to Vanya first. Vanya, that always cares, even though she’s powerless, she always was his favorite. She looks even more tired than she used to as a child like there was nothing left inside of her to keep her alive any longer. And she listens, but she’s tired. And for a person that tired, it’s hard to burden them any further. </p><p>Then he tries Klaus. His eccentric brother, much easier to manipulate than any of the others. And he goes a bit too far for Five’s liking, with the right hook and the snowglobe smashing, but it still gets the job done but again, the fruit of his labors comes to nothing. </p><p>Luther and Diego find him in the library, passed out, hugging an empty bottle with one hand and Dolores with the other. Luther takes him to Diego’s place, Diego disappears and comes back visibly upset. Says his Eudora’s dead. Five feels a sinking in his heart as he explains the forthcoming apocalypse and watches the horror unfold on Luther’s face. </p><p>Klaus appears again, leaving bloody footprints all over the floor, and when he asks why, Klaus looks at him with such distaste. He didn’t think his brother was capable of that, that amount of sadness and anger brewing under his skin. <em>They kidnapped him, and it was my fault, </em>thinks Five. <em>My fault, </em>as Klaus turns away. Five doesn’t offer any words of comfort. He doesn’t know what to say.</p><p>And then Allison’s throat gets cut by Vanya, and <em>here</em> thinks Five, <em>here’s my chance to help and to fix </em>and the second Grace asks for blood his head swings up and he’s ready. He may be mean and appear heartless, but he still loves his sisters (and his brothers, no less.)</p><p>then it happens. The thing he’s been fighting so long to hold off, it’s here. How did he not see it before? Vanya, she was the key. And they all ignored her, left her out of everything, and now his family was going to die. The family that didn’t know he loved them more than anything, that he’d do everything to keep them safe. They’d never know, and he’d have to watch them die, again and he doesn’t think his heart could take it so he does the only thing he knows how to do. </p><p>“Take my hands!” And then the vortex opens above them, and he doesn’t know where or when he’s taking them, but all he’s hoping is that they stay together and he never has to lose them again. </p><p>He’ll stop this apocalypse. He’ll fix this. He’ll do whatever it takes. </p>
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